Further than the Final Frontier
by Europec
Summary: The USS Titan is stranded by an unknown force far from the Federation and in the middle of seemingly empty space. What, or rather who, they find there will likely throw the whole Quadrant into war of magic&tech. A war which shall be rewriting history.
1. Swim only in what you know is water

**Disclaimer:** The Star Trek, Stargate and Harry Potter franchises, characters, concepts, plots, worlds, ideas and any other similarities are not mine, nor do I claim any right to this story. This is solely for my entertainment only and for the release of my crazy fantasy, not for any intentional copyright infringement or for the purpose of any monetary gain. A big source of my inspiration and thus credit for many ideas and similarities goes to super writers Orson Scott Card and Peter F. Hamilton.

* * *

"Captain to the bridge!"

Riker groaned into his pillow. Beside him, he could hear Deanna moan and turn to her side; clearly she was ignoring the call and trying to stay asleep. He reached for his com-badge on the bedside table and after tapping it asked: "Report!" Deanna gave a slight sigh. Riker sat up as he listened to his XO Commander Vale.

"Captain, we dropped out of warp, our primary systems are offline, secondaries are malfunctioning, however, emergency systems are holding and online, several hull breaches, they are contained so far, however..."

'Great, this was the good news. Here comes the bad,' Riker thought, now fully awake and already getting dressed. Deanna was also throwing on her uniform.

"...our warp core suffered minor damage. Engineering is on it, Sir, but the nacelles suffered some structural damage."

"I'm on my way."

Both of them now fully dressed started for the door. Suddenly, the alarm sounds mixed with the red lights of Red Alert flashed and rang in their quarters. The main computer announced:

"Warning! Warp core breach in 15 minutes!"

'Minor damage, eh!?' Thought Riker as he and Deanna practically ran out of their quarters and towards the nearest turbolift. 'Xin had better be on it!'

"Riker to Ra-Havreii, report!" he ordered his chief engineer.

"Captain, I'm a little busy right now! Something collapsed our warp field in such a way that it super-heated the plasma in the core. I'll keep you updated as much as I can, but I have to stop the breach."

"Acknowledged Xin."

He was feeling more irritated by the minute. After checking the time, he realized he only slept two hours. Deanna, sensing he was a bit cranky, started to rub his shoulders. Riker's tension floated away. He stretched and looked Deanna in the eyes. "Thanks," he said, just as the lift doors opened to the bridge.

Riker strolled onto the bridge, followed by Deanna. Everybody was busy coordinating repair efforts and trying to find the cause of their problems. Finding Christine, he started walking towards her. "What the hell is going?" he asked on the way, trying to ignore the seemingly well working relationship between his First Officer and Chief Science Officer.

Vale turned to him from the science station. "We're still working on that, Sir. Weapons, shields are propulsion down. Navigation, communication and sensors are erratic at best. Life support is stable. There were a few injuries from ruptured plasma conduits; Ree is taking care of it. Our main concern now is the core and limiting the damage that is being done on the nacelles-"

Riker cut her off. "Being done? Are we under attack? What do yo-"

"Unknown origin, Sir. Best we can determine as of now is something is preventing us from establishing a warp field of any kind, stable or otherwise. When it first collapsed the field, it created some kind of wave that propagated through the plasma conduits into the core damaging several key systems on the way."

"That doesn't explain why key systems are offline. They are designed to function under stress and damage, not counting numerous back-up systems and secondaries," stated Deanna. Lieutenant Commander Jaza Najem, the chief science officer, smiled and offered his answer.

"They are, however, the systems aren't functioning due to different reasons. The propulsion systems are obvious. Shields and weapons, on the other hand, are a mystery. The systems themselves are functional, undamaged and powered, but something is preventing them from functioning."

This raised some eyebrows. Jaza, unfazed, continued in his report.

"Communications are even more confusing. Subspace is totally inaccessible, for unknown reasons, which brings us to sensors and navigation. Navigation is probably suffering due to being directly tied with propulsion; otherwise it can function only on the EM spectrum. Sensors are operational only in the EM spectrum and even that is being dampened in the ultra-high energy levels. That's the problem, because those are the energy levels at which the warp field operates in the EM and our only way of discovering the cause."

Several seconds passed as everyone seemed to digest this information. Before any of them could respond, however, the lighting seemed to flicker and then stabilize at normal levels. The red alert was dropped and the voice of Xin Ra-Havreii sounded over the com:

"Engineering to bridge."

"Report, Commander."

"Captain, the breach has been contained. Unfortunately, I had to take the warp core offline and shut down all the plasma conduits. We're running on emergency fusion generators for now."

"What about impulse power?"

"The generator and systems appear undamaged and functional, however Sir, until we do a complete assessment of the structural damage to the nacelles, I recommend not moving. I'll have a complete report for you as soon as possible, Sir."

"Very well, I'd like a report on the status of the ship ASAP, Riker out."

Riker turned to Vale, "Commander please coordinate the damage assessment and repair efforts. I'll be in my ready room, you have the bridge." He turned and walked towards his Ready Room.

* * *

Xin Ra-Havreii was not having a pleasant day. After a whole day of a complete over-haul and alignment of secondary plasma injectors he was just about to hand over the shift to the beta team when this mess happened. He heard the problem with core before the engineering crew started reporting it. He ran towards the main matter-antimatter reaction control console and started working, trying to slow down the reaction rate.

The Dilithium crystals were being exposed to higher temperatures and pressure, therefore accelerating the reaction rate, forcing the temperature and pressure of the electro-plasma higher, which in turn affected the crystals again, creating a feed-back loop.

'This shouldn't be happening,' he thought.

Normally the escaping plasma cooled the crystals, by taking the heat with it and thus slowing the reaction rate. Although it cooled the crystals, this was generally a long term process, thus there was also a plasma coolant system. This not only served to regulate the temperature of the core but all the plasma conduits within the ship. Cooling the crystals was dangerous in itself, because if the crystals cooled sufficiently, they become non-porous to antimatter. In that state antimatter would react with the crystals themselves, causing an uncontrolled runaway reaction and a warp core breach. The crystals were kept in a porous state by high-frequency EM fields, which heated the crystals quiet efficiently. This had a drawback too as with higher temperatures Dilithium decrystalized faster into waste products.

Of course, the source of antimatter could be simply turned off, however that would take the warp core offline, which would cause further problems down the line. For example, you can't just turn it off in mid Warp, you need to dissipate the subspace field gradually or you risk tearing the ship to pieces. Further, it would result in a ship-wide power failure if the backup wasn't brought online in time. Most systems, notably weapons, shields and, obviously, propulsion, needed the output of a warp core to function in their full capacity. Then there are the physical limitations of the core itself. There is always a quantity of antimatter within the crystal and also the reaction chamber that is past the point of return to containment. Depending on the amount, a breach may be contained by erecting force fields around the core, but that is rarely the case. Usually a breach occurs during periods of great stress on the ship itself. Greater power is needed and the core is operating near maximum output with larger quantities of antimatter in the reaction chamber. Force fields can only help so much; they are nowhere near as powerful as shields, which were by design meant to withstand a reaction of orders of magnitude greater amounts of matter and antimatter. In nearly all of the cases of an imminent breach, there is only one final option; dumping the core and getting as far away as possible by any means possible.

The core was equipped with magnetic constrictors, or tiny safe pockets, around the rim. The antimatter could be siphoned off into the pockets and kept safely in 'temporary containment' until either manually removed, if the breach is prevented or contained, or destroyed along with the core when it was dumped.

Therefore, when dealing with a potential breach you always first try to contain it by returning the reaction rates to normal, preferably by fixing the problem, but patching it up temporarily also works.

During normal operation the reaction was being maintained and regulated by the main computer, the primary system, with the engineers occasionally adjusting it to compensate for energetic needs through-out the ship. The primary system had safety protocols and breach prevention subroutines, which were continuously being upgraded and developed and became unique to each ship, warp core, set of hardware, main computer, even engineer or crew. They were helpful, but ultimately a breach always needed a hands-on approach.

Thus after the primary regulation system was switched to manual, every subsystem, console or read-out had to be under supervision. The secondaries were support systems of the primary ones. They were even more important, because they controlled the limits of the primaries. Individual tweaking and coordinating between secondary systems always helped getting the maximum needed output and desired results of the primary subsystems.

At first Ra-Havreii went through standard procedures in this type of situation, barking commands as he furiously typed command after command into the console. His alpha team was at various other consoles or running towards the systems themselves, already knowing what he was doing and assisting him, working like a well-oiled machine. Beta team was helping out also, knowing the steps and assisting were they could. No man or woman was spared. Every hand, feet or brain was helpful in this kind of situation. Secondary systems were being monitored and manipulated into supporting the rapidly failing primaries.

The standard red alert imminent core breach warning started to sound. The engineering crew was unperturbed.

Ra-Havreii first lowered the EM field in the reaction chamber to the minimum safe temperature and then aligned the superconducting magnetic field in the two plasma conduits to channel the electro-plasma away from the Dilithium crystals as fast as possible, to try and cool them down even faster. He increased the circulation of the plasma cooling system. His console was sending a live feed of all of his commands and stats to the other consoles, so his team knew what he was trying to achieve. They rerouted available power to the plasma conduits, slowed the input of antimatter to a bare minimum, all the while constantly checking if power levels remained normal through-out the ship. Further, reinforcing or redirect the energy flow where needed and preparing the plasma coolant system for overuse and major abuse. The beta team was meanwhile scanning the core with tricorders, sending more accurate readings to all consoles, preparing for the worst by opening floor and wall panels for quick and easy access to repair the secondary and primary hardware, if it began to fail under the added stress and unique usage, getting out toolkits and even medical and first aid kits in case of an accident. Each of them soon had a tricorder and some tool in each hand, receiving instructions from the alpha team and fixing or customizing hardware according to needed specifications.

Ra-Havreii's eyes bulged as he saw that his first steps had the exact opposite effect as intended on the reaction rate, it was climbing through the roof. Just then the captain called:

"Riker to Ra-Havreii, report!"

Quickly sending out instructions through his console to slow the electro-plasma down, increase the output and efficiency of the theta-matrix compositor to prevent the rapidly decrystalizing Dilithium due to overuse from doing just that and to start a level one diagnostic on everything. Only then did he answer the captain.

"Captain, I'm a little busy right now!"

He started the pre-eject core protocol check sequence, frowning, that the temperature was still rising quickly, albeit a bit slower. He increased coolant levels and circulation to two-thirds of maximum capacity and started the pre-ignition check sequence for the fusion generators.

"Something collapsed our warp field in such a way that it super-heated the plasma in the core."

He sent out wake-up calls to gamma team and called in every engineer assigned to him on the crew, telling them to drop everything and get here faster than Warp 9.

"I'll keep you updated as much as I can, but I have to stop the breach."

The diagnostics started to come back. Something was messing with the electro-plasma, whatever it was it wasn't a onetime event, it was still happening.

"Acknowledged Xin."

The nacelles were being battered, the subspace field they were generating was clashing with something and it was losing. The effects were being channelled by the plasma itself into the core. Not good. He was fighting a battle which was doomed from the start. Realizing this, he started the warp core shut down sequence and barking out:

"We're taking it offline!"

The engineers started securing systems and hardware, preparing for the possible loss of all power. Some hardware needed power to literally exist, so they secured and reinforced their surroundings for the inevitable blow-outs. Antimatter, plasma and coolant flow and the high-frequency EM field was almost constantly adjusted now in a beautiful symphony of death as it slowly took life from the reaction chamber. The magnetic constrictors were checked and put on stand-by.

Seeing the pre-ignition check sequence for the fusion generators in the green, he started the ignition sequence. Normally they generated plasma, which was then funnelled into the power transfer conduits, or PTC, the secondary and main stage of the warp plasma conduits, which was the primary power distribution grid. This enabled some semblance of normal ship operations, although every system was limited by lack of power; warp capability up to Warp 2.5, shield, sensor range and weapon strength suffered equally and many secondary systems whose hardware efficiency depended on power levels would be limited as well.

However seeing as this problem was distributed by PTC, he quickly switched the fusion generators to their secondary mode of operation, directly producing electricity and feeding it into the main electric power grid. He also quickly started a level three diagnostic of the grid, making sure there wouldn't be any fluctuations.

'Wouldn't want sensitive systems crashing or consoles overloading,' he mused.

The generators were now running and the electric grid diagnostic was clean, so he switched the change from plasma to fusion, calling out:

"We're now on fusion!"

Engineers were making sure the transition went through smoothly and checking every system on the ship was responding to the change without too many hiccups. Although in this situation, where nearly every system was not functioning within specified parameters, it was a bit tedious. The main concern was if they were getting a stable amount of power, no matter the strange feedback they were getting from other queries.

Ra-Havreii joined the shut down orchestra and closed the antimatter flow down, started-up the magnetic constrictors. The plasma pressure, temperature and amount dropped immediately. Engineers were now double checking and rechecking antimatter containment in storage. The ones scanning the core were helping locate all the antimatter and directing the magnetic constrictors' fields to those locations. The reaction rate, which dropped considerably when the source of antimatter was closed off, was now reaching zero rapidly.

The core stopped its quiet humming; the matter-antimatter reaction stopped and the lights flickered slightly. The subspace field the nacelles were generating dispersed. The ship lost its protection from micro-meteorites and interstellar radiation as the main deflector dropped the field it generated. It reset itself automatically to the parameters without a subspace field, tried to realign with the local interstellar conditions, failed, but nonetheless kicked in and initialized.

He checked to He ordered to triple check if all of the antimatter was confined and if the magnetic constrictors were holding and stable. When he was given an affirmative, which came fairly quickly with all the people on the job, he gave the order to stand down red alert and called the bridge:

"Engineering to bridge."

"Report, Commander," sounded the voice of Captain Riker through the com.

"Captain, the breach has been contained. Unfortunately, I had to take the warp core offline and shut down all the plasma conduits. We're running on emergency fusion generators for now."

He checked the status of the electric grid and was satisfied that it was stable and fully operational. He assigning two people to constantly monitor it and correct any fluctuations and ordered the antimatter extraction process to stand-by. He also assigned a monitor subroutine on the main deflector.

"What about impulse power?" Riker asked.

Ra-Havreii looked at the status of the level one diagnostic he ran earlier. The results were all in the green, no damage to the hardware or systems. Knowing what Riker wanted to know, he checked the reports for ship flight readiness.

"The generator and systems appear undamaged and functional, however Sir, until we do a complete assessment of the structural damage to the nacelles, I recommend not moving. I'll have a complete report for you as soon as possible, Sir."

"Very well, I'd like a report on the status of the ship ASAP, Riker out."

Returning his attention to the incomplete shut down procedure, he checked once again with his engineers if the antimatter was all contained and then proceeded to switch off the EM field heating the Dilithium and turned the plasma cooling to full capacity for core. Closing of the core and isolating it from the PTC would speed up cooling time. He checked on the deflector once again. It was functioning within specified parameters, but that was just it, it shouldn't be. The initialize protocols would be prevented by their safety subroutines from engaging the deflection field due to unknown conditions. Yet the field was up and running, seemingly without a flaw. 'Just another question to the list,' he thought.

He set orders for a level five diagnostic of every square centimetre of the ship. Quickly realizing he was going to have to conscript as much of the crew as possible, he contacted Commander Vale about assignments.

"Commander Ra-Havreii to Commander Vale."

"Commander Vale here."

"Commander, I would like to do a ship wide diagnostic and I would like to request more personnel."

"Yes, Commander, I just went over your request and have started assigning people to you. The first shift should be report within the next hour. I suggest have you drawn-up assignments by then. I'll send you a list of the people I'm assigning and it may be a good idea to team them up in pairs with your engineers."

"Good idea Commander, thank you, Ra-Havreii out."

Ra-Havreii began the process of drawing-up diagnostic assignments, dividing them by priority, difficulty and needed expertise. His alpha team meanwhile was already scrutinizing every speck of dust in engineering. Beta team was already on-route to the nacelles, with a stern warning from him to watch out and keep an eye-out for anything. Gamma team, which had come in over the course of the crisis, was now helping with diagnostics and monitoring the ship status.

He would hold alpha team here until the shut down procedure was complete and the diagnostics of the core underway, which should be in about an hour or two. He would pull half of beta back, and along with half of gamma and the new 'recruits', they would be assigned various tasks to take this ship apart. The rest of gamma would continue in engineering. Then alpha would get some mandatory rest so they can pull a 20 hour shift tomorrow. When alpha came back, beta would rest and so on, so there would be two teams constantly working. 'Thank God for coffee!' he thought.

He decided to check if anything serious needed immediate repair. He groaned inwardly when he saw the list. Several hull breaches, sealed for now and not the immediate concern, a couple of disruptions in the power grid, these are the primary concern, several ruptured plasma conduits, the last on the list, and a few broken consoles. The nacelles would need a complete overhaul. Frankly, he thought they were lucky that it was only that.

He pulled half of alpha team to repair the damages around the ship and made sure they check the sector grid and check in with the people monitoring the grid before and after they repair it. We don't need those things blowing-up again. He yawned; this is going to be a long week.

* * *

Captain William T. Riker of the USS Titan was going down the corridor towards a meeting with his senior staff. He wasn't looking forward to it, because he partly knew what was going to be presented to him. The last two days have been literally hell in space. First, en route towards the furthest reaches of Orion's Arm in the Milky Way Galaxy, on a mission of pure exploratory nature, they where knock out of warp and stranded. They were now stuck in the middle of a gap of empty space a hundred light-years wide. After the initial crisis of an unstable warp core and irritating and strangely clumsy state of the art systems, everyone on board rolled up their sleeves and got their hands dirty. There was a lot of damage done to the engines and some minor repairs around the whole ship. Surprisingly, the incident had a tremendous affect on the crew. Moral had never been higher as everybody pitched in where they could, even Will did his fair share of repairs and diagnostics. He was never more proud of his hand-picked crew than now. It meant a lot to him, that his choices were the right ones and the crew seemed to reaffirm him at every chance they got. True, the mission had been a bit of joke, since the only exploring they did was when they had to fight for their lives with their nails and teeth. Despite the laughs he had over this, Will always thought that that was the true nature of exploring space. You never learn more than when your life is on the line. Maybe it was a bit morbid of him, especially since he had a crew to look after. There were always victims, however he never believed in the concept of acceptable losses and never will. He was ready to sell his soul to protect his crew and when it came to it he would put his life on the line for. Maybe this was why the crew was so determined. They knew that he would always protect them to the best and beyond of his abilities. Further, they knew that if they died, it wouldn't be in vein and that he would assure they died doing the right thing. All this probably caused the crew to bond so thoroughly under his command. He could rely on anyone of them. This made Will very proud and very humble. They were his family in a way and they knew it.

This was why he dreaded the meeting. He helped out and he knew the extent of the problems when he did the repairs and diagnostics. If they were any indication as to what he could expect from a ship-wide diagnostic, it would not be nice.

He was brought out of his musing by a very heated discussion already present in the Meeting Room.

"...damn it Jaza! What do you mean you don't know anything? And what are you saying we're essentially dead in the water until Jaza figures it out?" A very frustrated Commander Christine Vale sounded from the other side of the room.

"Just what I said Christine, you could probably find more logic in Tuvok's illogical way of life!" That was distinctly Lieutenant Commander Jaza Najem, trying to make a point, but obviously not succeeding.

"As he said, Christine, I can't wrap my head around it! Nothing makes sense. We ran the diagnostics three times through the main computer, which took far longer than usual. We even tried a custom diagnostic and what a waste that was. Always the same result! Everything checks out, but nothing is working. We purposely took apart a plasma relay in the forward phaser banks, put it back together, everything fit down to the last nanometre, all the independent tests show it's the best one we've got, would put Utopia Planitia to shame, but once we put it back into the system. Nothing. It's as if the phasers don't want to fire, which I hope is not the case!" That was the ranting of a Commander Ra-Havreii, his Chief Engineer, who was evidently the most put off that the ship he designed doesn't feel like cooperating.

Will sat down in the chair at the head of the meeting table and looked at Deanna, who was clearly a little bothered by the frustration of the three individuals, but also was trying to hide a smile since she saw him walk into a ranting Meeting Room. Next to her was Commander Tuvok, Tactical Officer, who after acknowledging him, turned back to following the discussion with avid interest shown by a raised eyebrow.

Dr. Ree and Lieutenant Commander Keru, his Chief Medical Officer and Chief of Security, turned to greet him with nods after he sat down, but resumed their more private discussion about tighter security and potential medical emergencies in case of hostiles onboard. There had been a constant disagreement between Will and Keru about the nature of their predicament, but in the end Will conceded that until they could adequately describe what had happened, they were vulnerable and thus the need for greater security. Dr. Ree then offered to keep a number of people, who received, at least, some basic medical training and education, on stand-by. They were probably coordinating for a medical officer to be on some of the patrols. This wasn't a bad idea and brought him back to why he was here. Christine, Jaza and Xin were still at it, but noticeably at a more speculative line of thought, because there were no further outbursts. They still hadn't noticed him, so they must be onto something.

"Right then, shall we get started?" Riker asked to get everybody's attention.

The three at least looked a bit embarrassed, but he couldn't tell, because Jaza and Xin weren't human and Christine knew how to mask her emotions really well. They took their seats with "Captain" "Yes, Sir" and "Yes Captain".

Riker decided to start with Xin to get everybody up to speed about the ship.

"So Commander Ra-Havreii, what is the final damage report and status of repairs and ship in general?"

"Captain, there wasn't much more to add to the initial assessment in general. A few more ruptures due to stress, several micro-fractures in the hull or hardware. With the ship-wide diagnostic we were able to locate every faulty component and I'm pleased to report that everything is now repaired except for the nacelles. Functionality of the systems is a completely different story. While we are certain that the systems themselves are operational, from a hardware and software point of view, some somehow they still fail to run up to specifications or at all. The warp core is ready to be brought online, however I must strongly advise against doing so, since we still do not know the origin or nature of the problem. The nacelles themselves are the most difficult. Nearly all of the plasma injectors suffered stress damage and have to be removed, repaired and cleaned. The warp coils are in a similar state. Luckily they are more robust; however several still fused or were altered in such a way that they have to be replaced. The nacelle hull has suffered minor damage. We expect repairs to be finished in six days at most. It would be sooner, but I'm unwilling to risk it, we'll be transferring the components and repairing them manually. We have impulse capability; however, I'm not recommending it, until we repair the nacelles and figure out if they will be able to withstand movement without further damage. As for the systems; weapons and shields are not functional, sensors are limited but functional, navigation is now as fully functional as can be expected with the status of the sensors, propulsion is known, communication is also as fully functional as can be expected without access to subspace. Life-support is fully functional, as are replicators. The deflector is operational and stable. The fusion generators are stable too. We have enough fuel in storage and together with the Bussard collector it can last nearly indefinitely. From a technical point of view, the ship is like from dry-dock, not assuming the nacelles, of course."

"Thank you, Commander. Dr. Ree what's going on in sickbay?"

"Nothing out of the ordinary only the usual ailments with repair and maintenance crews, Captain. The injured from the incident have all been discharged, with a clean bill of health, three hours after it occurred. Momentarily I am setting up a contingency team of emergency medical personnel in case the worst happens. I am also trying to find personnel with both tactical and medical expertise for the security teams."

"Thank you, Doctor. Commander Keru?"

"In addition to previous reports, Sir, I can only add that inner-ship sensors are fully functional and all systems seem to be secure. Security teams are formed and schedules are set up and already being executed. I have been playing with the idea that we may have a corrupt program within the main computer."

"Are you suggesting a virus?" Ra-Havreii asked.

"Yes," answered Keru.

"You do realize such a program has not been seen in nearly two-hundred years? Our processors are considered impenetrable. The only theoretical threat is an artificial intelligence, which our current technology is nowhere near to creating."

"Our situation is unique. As far as we know, our technology is not the problem; initiating certain systems, with our functioning hardware, causes problems. Those systems are primarily offensive and defensive in nature. Weapons, shields, communication, propulsion, sensors, it's almost like we are being disarmed before approaching neutral territory. I admit the idea is far-fetched; however an investigation would be only prudent. What if we stumbled, accidently into a domain controlled by an unknown intelligence?"

"Captain, I believe the idea has sufficient merit to warrant an investigation," Ra-Havreii finally stated.

"Very well, can you spare some engineers to look at the main computer?"

"Yes Captain, I can."

Riker pushed forward. 'This is already a long meeting and there is still much to cover,' he thought.

"I recommend we assign this a higher priority. If it may find a solution to our current situation, I say we invest the most time into that." Deanna stated. Christine could only agree. Riker ask Ra-Havreii if he didn't mind.

"No problem Captain. I'll assign more personnel, who specialize in system analysis and computer languages."

Riker turned to Jaza.

"Commander Najem, what have gathered about our situation?"

"Our science officers have discovered that we are, in fact, in an elliptical orbit. The source of the gravity well, in which are caught, is not visible on the entire available EM spectrum."

"You're saying that we are orbiting something which emits zero or no radiation whatsoever? Could it be a singularity?"

"We have no way of knowing, however, we do know its mass. It is precisely two Solar masses. This is within the known threshold for the collapse of a neutron star, although it may still be one. We can't know for certain until we get our subspace capabilities back. The semimajor axis of our orbit is fifty-seven million kilometres; with a periastron of thirty-five million kilometres and the orbital period is a little over 61 days.

Whatever is causing our systems to malfunction and is preventing from accessing subspace is at the centre of our orbit. It's most probable however, that its influence is limited. Since we were at Warp 6 when we were caught, it's safe to assume we travelled up to half a million kilometres inside the sphere of influence before we stopped and were caught by the gravitational field into our current orbit.

Our orbit is very eccentric and after passing periastron it will begin to circularize, meaning that the apastron will get shorter with each passing orbit. Including the distance travelled after we dropped out of warp, the maximum radius of the sphere of influence is eighty million kilometres."

This got a loud outburst of reactions. Will thought about the amount of energy a field that size had to require. This isn't getting any prettier. From the others' reactions and stunned silence, they all were thinking along the same lines. 'We're in, waist deep and it's starting to smell really badly,' thought Will.

He needed to hear the rest of the reports and then they could start cooking a plan to leave, quietly and quickly. He turned to Deanna:

"Counselor, how's the crew holding up?" Although he had a pretty rough idea, he wanted to hear her side of the story. Deanna, sensing that he was confident, but in need of assurance, said:

"The crew is holding together admirably. Moral is still high and they are pretty confident you can get us out of this. They have faith, trust and knowledge of your leadership skills Will. You won't let them down."

"Thank you, Deanna. Can you sense anything out there?"

"There is a presence. A very strong one, but I can't read anything beyond that. I have this really cold feeling every time I focus on it. It seems, wrong in a certain way. I can't place it at all, but at the same time it feels like I've seen it before."

Everyone was holding their breath while she was speaking. When she said she had cold feeling, the hair on the back of Will's neck started to stand and it gave him the goose bumps. He had a really bad feeling this whole thing was going to get even more twisted.

"Commander Vale?" he beckoned.

"The teams are on schedule, nothing of importance in the issue of crew matter, Sir."

"Good, what about you Commander Tuvok? Do you have anything?"

"As the Tactical Officer I find myself with very little to do due to the inoperability of key systems under my command. However, I have volunteered to be part of the patrol guards and to further train anyone who wishes it. I may have alternative ideas to potential offensive and defensive scenarios. For example, we may explore the possibility of manually launching a torpedo or polarize the hull against offensive weaponry of an energetic nature."

"Sounds promising. Please coordinate with Commander Ra-Havreii and Lieutenant Commander Keru."

"I find it also troubling as to potentially what known race could have achieved this. The possibilities are unsettling at best."

Riker looked Tuvok over. 'A Vulcan, admitting something upsets him? This must be worse than I thought,' speculated Will quietly. Vale took up the mantle on this question:

"Let's see, probably can count them on one hand. There are a few that come to mind in Federation space. But we know them, at least somewhat, and they haven't indicated that have been this far out, nor that they hid a star. Off the top of my head comes one I hope I'm wrong about. The Borg."

Tuvok decided to answer. "High unlikely, although, a fair assumption. However, I must remind you that while the Borg would have sufficient technological knowledge and enough power sources, before our return on board USS Voyager from the Delta Quadrant, then future Admiral Janeway successfully sabotaged the collective leaving only a fraction of a percentage left. Even those vessels unharmed by the neurolithic pathogen would be acting as separate collectives. This phenomenon obviously would have required a much larger amount of cooperation. In addition, the surrounding space would have been heavily occupied by their vessels and we would have been located and assimilated by now."

Everyone shuddered at the thought. A small while in silence passed before Jaza spoke up.

"I read about the Voyager mission. Wasn't there an incredibly technologically advanced species that was responsible for you being stranded in the Delta Quadrant? The Caretaker, I believe?"

Again Tuvok answered. "While possible, both known members of its species that travelled to our galaxy are confirmed to be extinct."

"Commander Tuvok, what other species that you have encountered in the Delta Quadrant could potentially be behind this?" asked Deanna.

Tuvok appeared to think it through for a moment. "There are several that immediately come to mind, however only one could be potentially hazardous. Species 8472."

The group gasped. Will thought about it; 'great, just when I thought I heard all the bomb-shells today. If it truly is them there might be an invasion off the quadrant. Just when we settled all our wars, here's another potential outbreak of death and destruction.' He was brought back to reality by Jaza, who clearly studied the Voyager missions in greater detail than Will predicted or thought possible.

"It's possible I suppose," Jaza murmured, while he mulled it over. His eyes widened when he realized something; "More than possible! Very likely! They can cross over to our space only via a singularity, which is potentially at the bottom of this gravity well. In the Delta Quadrant, they were preparing for invasion. Then Captain Janeway persuaded them into a tentative truce. They might not have accepted the proposal as fact and came here anyway; only this time they masked their base! We have to get out of here and contact Starfleet!"

Jaza was now all worked up. The others were quietly thinking it over. Riker decided to get the Vulcan's opinion; "What do you think Commander Tuvok? Is it possible or even probable?"

"Possible? Certainly. Probable? More than any other option. However, I would recommend against jumping to conclusions, we are after all in an unexplored area of space. The star or singularity itself could have been travelling through this region from the beginnings of this galaxy. I would recommend extreme caution."

"Thank you, Commander Tuvok, your analysis is very much appreciated," stated Riker.

Just as Will was about to dissolve the meeting and retire to his quarters with Deanna, Ranul Keru said; "Who knows, maybe this is a practical joke! Anything is possible!"

Something in Will seemed to snap into place and all of a sudden everything seemed to fit rather smoothly into place. A deep anger and fear rose in him out of nowhere. Deanna sensed it immediately and looked at her husband questioningly with a fear in her eyes. 'What cold scare him so much?' She thought. She looked over the others. All of them saw something in their Captain break and were a little afraid what could do this to a person like him. Suddenly, Tuvok pinched his nose and closed his eyes. Deanna sensed the feelings of unease, disbelief, anger and resignation rolling off of him in waves. Tuvok composed himself and then addressed the Captain;

"It's unavoidable, Captain. Hopefully, you may learn something about our predicament. As my dear friend Admiral Janeway would say: No time like the present! She too had endured the same hardships."

Riker groaned in resignation. He looked up and caught everyone's eyes.

"I sure hope we're wrong about this Tuvok."

He looked into Deanna's eyes and said; "I love you Deanna, no matter what."

Deanna was overwhelmed by his mixture of strong emotions. The resignation at what is about to happen, the fear for the lives of his crew and friends and herself. His unquestionable love for her and her only was enough to make her dizzy. She could hardly breathe out; "I love you too Will."

Riker straightened and composed himself. "Here goes everything!"

"Q?"


	2. Misdirection

**Disclaimer:** The Star Trek, Stargate and Harry Potter franchises, characters, concepts, plots, worlds, ideas and any other similarities are not mine, nor do I claim any right to this story. This is solely for my entertainment only and for the release of my crazy fantasy, not for any intentional copyright infringement or for the purpose of any monetary gain. A big source of my inspiration and thus credit for many ideas and similarities goes to super writers Orson Scott Card and Peter F. Hamilton.

**A/N: **I have added this disclaimer to the first chapter, that's all I changed.

* * *

**Near Yalta, Earth, 1945.**

In a flash Captain Riker found himself standing on a well manicured lawn and standing in front of him was a gigantic white manor. He looked up at the blue sky, smelled the flower beds around him and smiled. Home, sweet, Home. Thinking he might as well used the time to explore a little, after all, manors such as this no longer existed back on Earth. He made his way towards the open doors, musing about a much simpler life. Stepping inside he found himself in a world of luxury. Scowling slightly as he remembered why he was here, he decided to find Q as soon as possible and pry some answers out of him. A sound to his left drew his attention and he followed it. It seemed to be laughter, women's and men's laughter. As he passed the third double doors, which were twice as tall as him, he could see the windows what appeared to be a central courtyard filled with people. Knowing Q liked to be the centre of attention he tried to find the way there. Passing into another room he spotted the way out and stepped into the courtyard.

It was filled with men in formal military uniforms being entertained by women clearly of dubious nature. It seemed the women outnumbered the men by at least two to one. The more he walked around the various celebrating people, the more he became confused about his exact location in time and space. There were three noticeably different uniform types. If his memory served right, he was looking at American, British and Soviet generals, admirals and top political state functionaries of the time near the end of World War Two. What was more baffling really was that the women were clearly from the 24th century. Belonging to various Federation member races and several more species he didn't recognize at all! He could now see, that all of the women were the most beautiful he had ever seen of their species. He shook his head; 'Riker you dog, get a grip of yourself! You're married for heaven's sake!' This snapped him back to reality. As he cleared his head, he could see that all of the women and men were practically fawning over each other. Something was magnifying the women's and men's sex appeal. But considering this was Q's doing, he wasn't too much surprised.

Thinking of the devil, he just spotted Q chatting and laughing with the "Big Three", all of which had women on their laps and around their shoulders. Shaking himself and thinking what this will do to history. Then he remembered that this was Q and he could make this as if it never happened. Although, now that he thought about it, he did remember seeing an old photo in a museum with the "Big Three" in a similar position. The photograph was described as a hoax, but now Will wasn't so sure.

Q seemed to 'finally' spot him in the crowd and waved him over. As Will was getting closer, Q called; "Mon Capitaine Will! What do I owe for the pleasure of the visit of Jean-Luc's favourite lap-dog?"

Will growled as he came nearer to stand before Q and the "Big Three", all of which were now watching him with keen interest.

"Q! What is going?"

"Always one for manners Will, you always will be a bearded Neanderthal. I don't know what Jean-Luc was thinking. Now, sit down-,"

Will was promptly pushed by an invisible force into a pink-flower-patterned love seat which wasn't there before, with the snap of Q's fingers.

"-and let me make introductions. It's only proper Will, to let your host know who you are before you bloody cry 'God Save the Queen!'" Will's eyes sparkled merrily at that statement for a second before quickly turning back to the guarded look. Q turned to look at each of the "Big Three" while he continued to introduce them; "Gentlemen," he gestured to Will, "Capitaine William T. Riker of the monstrosity called a spaceship named, _Moonshine_, was it Will?" Q looked at him with a smirk. Will just glared at Q. Who was he to be teaching Will etiquette, when the 'Being' knocks galaxies together by breathing? Further, insulting _his_ ship wasn't helping Will's mood either. Sighing in his resign, because he would have to play the games to get anywhere with Q, he then said; "Good Afternoon Gentlemen, it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance." 'Yeah, pleasure, especially that dictator Stalin here,' he added to himself.

Q looked at Will with a triumphant smile and said: "Will, let me introduce the "Big Three", Prime Minister Winston Churchill of Great Britain to my right, President Franklin D. Roosevelt of U.S.A. beside him and General Secretary Joseph Stalin of the Soviet Union to my left." Each nodded to Will when introduced. "Will and I go way back. We've had lots of fun and still do from time to time."

Will glared daggers at Q again. Playing with the _Enterprise_ and its crew like with an irritating anthill and insects, not to mention nearly giving Jean-Luc an aneurism every time he showed up, wasn't his idea of good fun. Deciding to throw the idea of playing games out of the window and be blunt, Will said; "Q, what are you playing at? What did you do?"

Of course, getting a straight answer from Q was like bringing peace to the Galaxy, impossible.

"Will, why don't you relax," Q started, changing Will's clothing to exotic casual shirt and shorts with the snap of a finger, "you're awfully tense, having a bad day? Here, I have just the thing!" Q snapped his fingers again.

On either side of Will, two women appeared wearing very revealing clothing, massaging his shoulders and thighs and- 'they have three breasts?' exclaimed Will mentally, his eyebrows shooting to his hairline. Shaking himself lose of the womens' ministrations, which was a feat in itself because it took not only all of his mental discipline but also all his physical prowess, and ignoring their hurt looks from being rejected, he vented his frustration at Q;

"Damn it Q! I don't have time for this! Now if you don't want to help, just send me back!"

Q tried to give a hurt look, "Moi? Not Helping?" But decided the superiority rant was a better angle.

"You pitiful humans with lowly sense of perception, gallivanting around your pathetic corner of the Universe, thinking you have the right the stick your sorry excuse for a nose in everyone's business, then coming to cry, complain and badger me for help, while still trying to shove your silly sense of honour and pride up my ass. If you haven't noticed it in all my, what did you call it, playing with the ants? Time, is of no concern to the Q!"

Will swallowed an angry retort and let out a long breath. He looked around. The "Big Three" and everyone at the party were ignoring the two of them in favour of having a good time. With as much neutrality in his voice as he could manage, he asked:

"Q, will you please help me?"

"There, was that so hard to ask in the first place? You know with all your Federation sense of enlightenment, you certainly lack a sense of diplomacy. To answer your question, yes, I'll point you in the right direction-," Q paused for just the tiniest moment, Will barely caught it, "-but let's make our adventure a bit more fun. If it was just you and me, it might make the wrong impression; we need someone of more calibre to make it more exciting!"

'Oh, he's not going to like this!' thought Will, realizing who Q was talking about. Before he could think anything else, Q snapped his fingers and they disappeared.

The party, what was formerly a conference in Yalta of the three biggest players near the end of World War Two, continued on without them.

* * *

**USS **_**Enterprise**_** NCC 1701-E, Alpha Quadrant.**

_Captain's Personal Log._

The _Enterprise_ is en route to _Entougra II_ to mediate a rise in hostilities among one of the newest Federation members, the _Ento_. This is the fifth time such a threat to peace has occurred there in the last ten years. Each time, The Honourable First Thals-kuef-uthlsa the fourth, their leader and head of government, has explicitly asked for the _Enterprise_ and its crew to help settle the dispute. Each time, we were successful in pre-empting a conflict; I can only hope we shall be again. However, something tells me that it's only an excuse for The Honourable First to ask for advice and consul. The _Ento_ have a sense of pride that would put the _Klingons _to shame. Thus asking for advice on a matter anything other than a conflict would put The Honourable First in a difficult position. Nevertheless, our visits to _Entougra II_ have always been enjoyable to me and the crew and I look forward to my meeting as I feel that it will be mutually beneficial.

Meanwhile, Commander La Forge has started to finally make some progress into helping B-4 come to his full potential. I am going to check on them before I arrive on the bridge for the start of the day shift. Hopefully, and with a chance of luck, B-4 will be able to access and use his brother's -Data's- memories to his benefit.

_End entry to Captain's Log._

_

* * *

_

Geordi was in the Cyber Laboratory looking at schematic and diagnostic reports of B-4's positronic neural net when Picard walked in.

"Geordi, report."

"Captain, I have made some progress into helping B-4. I think we may have been going at it the wrong way. So far we have tried to upgrade his positronic net to match Data's, but each new part we install, although more advanced, isn't used by his neural net as efficiently as his existing positronic pathways. It may take time for his net to adapt to the changes. Although Data could do it in a fraction of a second, the fact that B-4 doesn't is the problem. It reminds me of the human brain, progress is slow, but with time and stimulation, we may help him."

Geordi looked at B-4, who looked momentarily at him, before looking away and analyzing the room in keen interest, as if seeing it for the first time. Picard also looked at the android sitting in the diagnostics bay. 'I wish we could more for you, B-4,' thought Picard. Geordi continued with his report.

"I think we should try another approach. Seeing as upgrades tend to not be preferred to existing systems, it may be better to enhance the existing ones instead. I am working on away to increase the efficiency of his positronic systems, hopefully that will give him sufficient data capacity to quicken the adaption to the new ones."

"Very well, Geordi, I see that you have everything under control."

With that, Picard turned to leave. He was about to start walking to the door, when in a flash two people arrived. He stopped, stunned at the two most unlikely people arriving at the same time.

"Q?! Will?!" He exclaimed. Q was dressed, as always, in the standard Starfleet commander's uniform with the Captain insignia on the collar. Will, however, was dressed as someone from a tropical holiday resort, in a flowery designed shirt and shorts with sandals.

"Mon Capitaine!" Q nearly shouted. Will looked at Jean-Luc with a mixed look between apologetic and angry, however he managed it, and immediately said; "I'm sorry he dragged you into this, Jean-Luc."

"What is going on Q? Why have you brought Will here?"

"Capitaine, dashing as always I see, can't an old friend just drop in and have a chat?" Q quibbled as he quickly took in the room and spotting B-4, he moved towards him with keen interest written all over his face.

Jean-Luc was straining himself to reinforce his patience and keep his cool, as he did every time when he was forced to deal with Q and protecting his crew from his escapades. Will, seeing Geordi for the first time since arriving, nodded to him. Geordi, no longer surprised and confused nodded back and returned to watching the exchange between his Captain and Q with a mix of curiosity and wariness. He was a bit worried, because Q's interest in B-4 probably spelled nothing good. Jean-Luc responded to Q with a neutral tone.

"Frankly Q, every time we meet I find myself, my crew and this ship in mortal peril! You can see why I might be a little angry! Now I demand to know why you showed yourself now and why my former First Officer is here, probably thousands of light years away from his ship, where he belongs."

Q reached were B-4 was sitting, still attached to the many diagnostic tools with optical cables running from his head to the station beside him. He continued to ignore Jean-Luc, who was losing his patience very quickly. Seeing Q did not intend to answering his questioning, Jean-Luc turned to Will:

"Will, can you shed some light on this?"

"_Titan_ is stranded in the middle of the void between two density Bubbles in the Orion Arm. We hit some kind of field of influence, preventing us from accessing subspace, negating some of our primary systems, as if by simple will. So far, we haven't been able to find the source, except for a massive object, which we seem to be orbiting, but we can't see it with available sensors. We concluded the artificial nature of the field and tried to ascertain the creator from known advanced species. That's how I thought of Q and tried to get him to help, which is how we both ended up here. You won't believe where I was before." Will answered.

"I see." Jean-Luc answered back as he was watching what Q was doing with a worried face.

Q was walking around B-4 and looking at him with intense scrutiny. He reached out with a finger to B-4's head. B-4, looking up at Q the whole time, looked at the incoming finger with a happy oblivious demeanour. Geordi was now really worried.

"Captain!" Geordi exclaimed.

"Q, what are doing? Q, stop, leave him alone, he's innocent!" Picard started.

Q just looked at Jean-Luc with a weird look, and then smiled and pressed his finger into B-4's head pushing his head back. B-4 just let him. Q withdrew his hand and still looking at Picard; he rose and began another one of his famous diatribes:

"Typical Captain Jean-Luc-role-model-goodie-upstart- Federation-boy-scout-Picard! Always protecting the innocent and being your righteous self!" Q sneered. "Well, where's your precious Federation and your wise morals and fair courts when you're condemning me?"

Q smiled at Jean-Luc noticing his reaction. He still knew how to push the man's buttons.

Jean-Luc was too angry, not that he was showing it, to notice that Data had lifted his hands and was now examining them very closely. He and Will had their eyes only on Q. Geordi, however, noticed B-4's uncharacteristic movements and was now, more or less, in shock and not sure what exactly he should do. Jean-Luc answered the question posed by Q:

"I am not responsible for spreading chaos around the Universe, affecting countless sentient species with my games for the sake of amusement and preventing boredom!"

Q just rolled his eyes, clearly having heard this before. Nonetheless, he countered back at Picard.

"There's your Federation open-mindedness again acting on biased half-truths and narrowed sense of observation."

"Well then, why don't you explain to us, lowly creatures, your true intentions?" said Jean-Luc snippily. B-4 was now reaching up to his head and to the back of his neck with both hands, as if exploring what was sticking out of him. Then he slowly removed the first optical cable. No one noticed this except Geordi, who then moved to help B-4 remove the diagnostic connections. Meanwhile, Q continued in his quest for self vindication:

"There is no possible way you could even begin to imagine comprehending what Q are, not to mention our intentions, nor speaking of the Continuum! But let me attempt to make your feeble mind at least glimpse into what my actions caused."

Q looked at Jean-Luc as if he were summing him up. Jean-Luc looked back with an air of defiance.

"My actions and actions of the Continuum are always to create opportunities, ways to force cultures and species to look at the Universe in a new angle, to confront their own inhibitions and grow beyond their potential."

"Surely Q, that goal can be achieved through a safer, more diplomatic approach, which doesn't automatically necessitate violence or the mass loss of life?"

"On the contrary Jean-Luc, mortal beings always learn and change the most significantly only in those types of situations. Humanity itself is as prime example. But, unfortunately you have grown somewhat stagnate; therefore we are going on another adventure, Jean-Luc. I fear this time you shall need a little push and all the help you can get." Q stepped back from Jean-Luc. Jean-Luc looked away from Q to what was behind him and spotted something that stunned him. Will too was beyond words at the moment. B-4 was standing up holding Geordi's hands at the elbows and looking at him. Geordi was also in the same position. B-4 broke the silence:

"Geordi?"

Q turned back at Jean-Luc, smirked at him and snapped his fingers.

* * *

They arrived on the bridge. The night shift, seeing their method of arrival and the infamous Q himself, immediately called for intruder alert and security to the bridge. The commanding officer gave the bridge back to Captain Picard. Others around the bridge began securing their assigned systems and preparing the ship to emergency status. Geordi decided that reunions can wait. He relieved the officer at the engineering station and started reinforcing all key systems for whatever crazy thing Q was about to throw at them, remembering what he heard in the Cyber Laboratory. Riker moved behind the Captain to the official observational position. He nodded to the First Officer, Commander Worf, who just stepped onto the bridge. Surprisingly, B-4 asked the Captain if he could take the operations station. Picard looked at B-4, stunned once again, thinking how many bombs Q had hidden up his sleeve. He then looked at Q questioningly. Q merely raised an eyebrow, with a small smile on his face, back at him.

"Mr. B-4, relieve Commander Kadohata," stated Picard. As soon as B-4 logged into his station screen and prepared the system, Q snapped his fingers. The ship began to tremor slightly.

"Report," ordered Picard. B-4 began summarizing the data displayed on his console:

"There appears to be a singularity forming approximately fifty thousand kilometres off the port bow, Sir. It seems to be a wormhole. We are caught in its gravitational field."

"On screen," said Picard. A flat circle of pure black appeared on the screen. The only reason it was noticeable at all, was because it blocked out the stars behind it. It also had random flashes of colour around its event horizon due to interstellar particles accelerating as they fell deeper into its gravity well. It was also clearly getting closer.

"Captain, the singularity is interfering with our Warp field, we can't go to Warp. It is too strong for us to use the impulse to escape," Geordi pitched in.

"Mr. B-4 can you indentify the faze vector to find the other terminus of the singularity?" questioned Picard. Thinking every small detail could help.

"Yes, Sir, the terminus appears to be in the_ Entougra_ system, approximately half a million kilometres from Entougra II," said B-4 as he turned to Picard.

Picard looked at Q and thought; 'What is going on there? Well whatever it is, it can't be good because Q is involved.' He briefly considered asking Q for information, but thought better of it, since he wouldn't get a straight answer anyway. 'Well, it doesn't hurt to be prepared for the worst,' he decided.

"Battle stations," he ordered. His First Officer, Worf, was clearly in the same frame of mind as he further added:

"Medical bay, prepare for casualties! Engineering, full power to shields and inertial dampeners! All hands brace yourselves and prepare to fight and die with honour!"

The _Enterprise_ seemingly calmly passed through the event horizon and disappeared in the veil of darkness. The singularity stayed open for a few seconds more, before it started shrinking. It got smaller more rapidly as the energy (or will) holding it diminished. It vanished with a small flash of white light and space reasserted itself to the normal calm of emptiness.

Inside the wormhole, it was another story entirely. A trip which should have lasted a few seconds was taking much longer than normal. Immediately after they entered the wormhole, everyone felt a slight stretching feeling, followed by dizziness. It lasted maybe two seconds, but after that, all was normal, well as normal as travelling through a wormhole could be. B-4 instantly started typing furiously on his console. Systems across the ship and the bridge on various console displays started flickering and beeping in alarm. Reports of primary systems being inaccessible through-out the ship were coming in on their respected stations on the bridge. Of course, Jean-Luc noticed B-4's odd behaviour at once, since he was keeping an eye on him.

"Mr. B-4, what are you doing?" Jean-Luc was now very unsettled. They already had an incident of a pre-programmed B-4 once, when Shinzon tried to take his revenge on Earth. He looked at Q; 'Is this history repeating itself?' He decided to get more information from more reliable sources, but Worf was already on it:

"Report!"

"Sir, all control of primary and secondary systems has been rerouted to the operations Station. We are locked of the main computer with some kind of fractal encryption algorithm," reported Geordi.

"Is it similar to the one he used during the First Contact incident?" asked Picard.

"Only the first layer Captain, beneath is something I can't even identify. I haven't seen anything even remotely similar to this in my life. It's a wonder the ship is still working, to me it seems like complete chaos." Geordi typed in a few more commands before continuing; "right now, B-4 has access to control, however, we still have preview to some basic operations, such as sensor data, and nearly all secondary operational commands. Looks like we can keep the ship running, but B-4 is the one in command."

Picard turned to Q, startled for a second that his eyes were closed and he seemed to be frowning, but he had to ask anyway:

"Q, what have you done?"

Q didn't look back, just straight on, with his eyes closed and answered with the strangest thing Jean-Luc has ever heard him say, not to mention it was completely out of character:

"Captain, it will take only a few minutes longer, please have patience and trust me. I will answer as much as I can in a moment."

Everybody who had time to hear him was stunned and baffled. They looked at Q with their mouths open. B-4 was oblivious to everything and kept on tapping his console at a pace too fast for the human eye to see. The Tactical Officer, Lieutenant Choudhury, was the first to get out of shock by a warning sound from his console.

"Captain! B-4 is modifying the shields somehow. He's collapsing them tightly around the ship." He stated.

Before anyone could say anything, Geordi added;

"He's modifying our Warp field, I don't know how, but it's also collapsing and is now just above the shield. I'm getting reports of new components appearing all over the ship."

Picard looked at Q once more and again he was shocked to find him in an even more odd position. His face was scrunched up in concentration and he had his hands in fists, pressed against his temples. Geordi continued;

"He's tying our subspace field into the shields somehow. Wow. I have never seen anything like this-"

His console sounded an alarm. Geordi had now only time to read the reports he was getting from the whole ship and issue a general command to not touch anything to his engineering teams. He wanted them just look and analyze, not tamper or disable anything.

"-Captain! All fusion generators are now online and running at two hundred percent capacity. Something just appeared attached next to the warp core in main engineering. It has a very strong energy signature. A secondary subspace field is being generated by new hardware appearing through-out the ship; it has a highly specialized quantum and subspace signature and properties, not unlike this wormhole. It has stabilized outside the outer edge of the now modified Warp field. More hardware is popping up all over the ship! I can't believe this! Tertiary shielding, of similar subspace and quantum configuration, is activating on the warp nacelles, all plasma conduits, EPS systems, PTC systems and all primary systems, including shields, weapons, communication and sensors. Hull integrity systems are at five hundred percent of standard operational capacity. The extra component next to the warp core must be an additional power source! All systems will most likely still be fully operational once we exit the wormhole, including Warp Drive even with the modified warp field."

Jean-Luc was now very worried and he could see that all of his bridge crew were too. Q was actually giving them extra protection. He could tell that everyone was thinking along the same lines as he was; 'Where ever we are going and whatever we will face, it is something really bad if Q is actively helping us!' He couldn't say anything as the ship suddenly gave a shudder.

The wormhole finally ended. They came out in what appeared to be a void in space. There were no nearby stars visible; however, the Galaxy was shining all around them, akin to as it is seen from Earth. Will straightened up, recognizing this area of space, but he didn't have time to tell anyone. The view screen was now filled with colourful lights streaming past them coming from a point directly in front the ship. Everyone sat stunned beyond belief at what they were witnessing.

The stream of lights was getting faster and faster. Then suddenly everyone felt a slight shift and was pushed back. People in seats were pushed into them. Others who were standing had to hold on to anything they could reach. The point in front of them exploded in light on the view screen and was just as quickly replaced by what appeared to be the inside walls of a circular tunnel of colours swirling by them. Lieutenant Dina Elfiki, senior science officer, gave her opinion of what they were seeing.

"Captain, I believe we have entered a form of quantum slip-stream. It looks similar to what was on the reports of this drive from Voyager." She checked her station's display and tapped a few commands. "All systems are fully functional and appear to be operating above their theoretical efficiency."

Picard looked at Q, he was still very concentrated. Then he glanced at B-4. The android was still typing onto his console, but at least at a detectable rate to the human eye. Jean-Luc still wanted to know at least something, but hesitated at interrupting either of them. Instead, he asked Worf for a ship-wide status report.

"All decks reporting in Sir. No injuries, no damage, reports agree with Commander La Forge's assessment. Cargo bay one and two has been filled to maximum capacity with new hardware, possibly the same which has been appearing all over the ship."

"Very well, tell everyone to leave the new systems alone for now, we are going to go along with this. But I want everyone to be ready to take them offline and secure the original ones if necessary." To Lieutenant Choudhury, he added; "Mr. Choudhury, every person should have a phaser by now, but I want additional security details near critical systems."

"Aye Sir."

Will now added his small nugget of information.

"When we exited the wormhole, I recognized where we were. It was nowhere near Entougra II, but rather in the region of space the _Titan_ is." In his thoughts he added; 'We may be on our way to the ship right now.' Then he realized something more distressful; 'they are defenceless to whatever has spooked Q so much.'

"Helm, can you get our location?" asked Picard.

"Yes Sir, based on the sensor data gathered when we exited the wormhole, we are between two density Bubbles in the far reaches of the Orion Arm of the Milky Way Galaxy."

Everyone was silent for a while to digest this. Then Lieutenant Chen spoke again:

"Sir, the slip-stream appears to be destabilizing."

B-4 stopped typing on his console with one hand to tap his com badge;

"All hands, brace for impact!"

Everyone grabbed hold onto something and fixed their footing. The bridge crew just looked at B-4 as if he were crazy. The tunnel of colours on the view screen was slowing down. It flashed white then the stars were visible once more intermixed with streams of colours. Nobody had time to notice more as the _Enterprise_ came to a sudden and very quick full stop. The inertial dampeners compensated as much as they could, even in their upgraded capacity, but still didn't stop anyone from falling to the ground from their chairs, their stations or in the corridors. A few consoles and EPS systems blew on the bridge. Some officers had minor burns. The lights flickered a bit, but stayed online. The red alert was still on. Only B-4 and Q remained unmoved and unharmed. B-4 just continued typing onto his console unfazed by anything. Q walked into the centre of the bridge while everyone was returning to their stations or helping injured colleagues, thrust his hands in the air as if in victory and shouted in his typical dramatic fashion:

"Finally some privacy!"

* * *

**A/N:** I realize the difference between the entries of the two star ships into the 'field of influence'. There is a reason for both being what they are. The obvious one now is the different means of space travel. A second one may come to mind, but I'm not giving up that one. More will come later.

To my one reviewer! Thank you cruailsama! And rest assured that will be explained also!


End file.
